War Against the Animals : by Paul Russell (2003, Hardcover) 1st Edition

Description: War Against the Animals : by Paul Russell (2003, Hardcover) 1st Edition. The book in the covers is the one you'll get. Feel free to ask questions and thanks for looking! " War Against The Animals by Paul Russell As someone who fazed what our protagonist, Cameron Barnes, went through -- almost dying from AIDS to then come back to life and grow old -- this novel is quite personal. After recovering from his illness, Cameron moves to Stone Hollow, a small town in the Hudson River Valley in New York State - where many New York City gays have purchased properties and are engaged a conflict between the townies and the newcomers. Cameron's lover of eight years, Dan Futrell, left him because he could not deal with Cameron's recovery. Dan is HIV negative and does not want to be stuck to Cameron anymore. Cameron's best friend since college, Max Greenblatt, is running against the local mayor, Roy Vanderhof. The comedy relief is mostly the growing culture war between the rural locals and the mostly gay new residents from New York City. Cameron -- part of the gay invasion--decides to hire two local teenage boys, Kyle, and Jesse Vanderhof --both nephews of the current mayor. Kyle, the older one, immediately comes to see Cameron as their golden goose and uses Jesse as bait to get money from Cameron. What Kyle does not know is that Jesse is very fragile and conflicted. Jesse is questioning who he is and where he belongs in the world. He becomes interested in and curious about Cameron, and closeness develops between the two. Which, in turn, starts to interfere with the close relationship the two brothers had--which has been changing since their fatter, Bill Vanderhof, died of liver cancer. But like most of Russell's characters, the mere complexity of the relationship is what defines the plot. Narrated beautifully from the third person point of view of both Cameron and Jesse, the characters come alive. I saw many of the aspects of my gay life flashing from the pages I read. Whether it is dealing with my sexuality, dealing with an HIV diagnose, aging, my mortality, and thinking I would never find love again, it's all there. "Still it troubled him to realize he'd probably never again feel longing -- or anything else -- as intensely as he felt when he was a teenager. The scar tissue thickened. Books, music, friendships, sunsets -- about none of those things did he care the way he once cared." Cameron reveals on page 75. This book is about relationships, loss, friendships, disease, dealing with death, and characters coming to grips with who they are at different periods in their lives. But mostly is about loneliness--and we gays know a lot about that: "The night was humid, even oppressive; still, he had to suppress a shiver. Never had he felt so completely alone--the aloneness the dead must feel, stuck inside coffins, in sealed envelopes never to be opened, fading fast in the memories of the people who knew them so well, or at least thought they did, when they were alive." Jesse feels that way on page 323, once he realizes he's gay and must denounce all of his redneck friends and family. Kyle, the older brother Jesse used to worship, will never be able to relate with him anymore. We've all been there in one way or another. I love Paul Russell's books for how he manages to write about such dark times but with such warmth and tenderness at the heart of them."

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Location: Chicago, Illinois

End Time: 2024-10-27T22:47:28.000Z

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